The Ford rod bender

[Bent]

Here we go with one of Bills inventions. Hope I did your jig justice, Bill. It works just tickety boo!

I had a piece of 2" angle laying around I cut it in approx 2 - 5" lengths. Then I drilled 2 - 5/16" holes in them so that one is set above the other by the width of the handle you choose. You'll also see a small length of 3/16" rod sticking through the holes. This is the rod that you bend the pedal rod around.

Here is the basic jig without the handle. You can see how it's bolted together and the bottom angle is for clamping in the vise:

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This pic shows the handle. Mine turned out to be a 10" long piece of flat stock, about 7/8" wide by 3/8" thick. The slot is just a wee bit wider than the rod's thickness - in this case a pedal rod 3/16" thick:

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The next pic you see the pedal rod in the handle slot, ready to get bent - RIGHT, Bent is my name
You see some lines scribed on top of the bottom angle. These are reference lines for how much I want to bend the rod

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[Bent]

Pic 4 shows the bend starting. The 10" handle gives great leverage and is amazingly easy to operate. Note the nice feature with this jig: You need to let the rod stick thru the handle by not even a 16th of an inch. In fact, you can flatten the end of teh rod on the emery wheel and round the sharp edge nicely. Yuo will get a great, finished bend.

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Here I am at the end of the bend. I went way too far just to demo how much of a bend you can make without the handle letting go.

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The last pic shows the finished rod. The bend to the right is the one that got over-bent
The one to the left is just right.

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T-t-t-that's all Folks!

[Bill Ladd]

That's cool as all get out! Thanks.

[Allan]

Again I say - the simpler it is the better I like it! Could just be, 'the better I understand it' too though!

Thanks for the post. That's as neat as can be.

Allan.....

[Bent]

Yeah that Bill is pretty slick!
True, it is the simplest that works the best. The 2 main features of this jig is that you can finish your rod end before the bend, because the handle notch will hold on to the rod. The second feature is that you can get the type of bend you want: angled type or round type

[Eldon]

All I can say is Sweet. Thanks to Bill and Bent.

[Bill Ford]

Hey Bent,
Yours looks better than mine, I guess the difference between a plan, and an idea....LOL
Please explain (in simple terms) or link me to it,how to post pictures. Do you need Photobucket, or a similar program?

Thanks...Bill

[Eldon]

I supose heating the rod before bending would be out of question. ??????

[Bent]

Eldon, there is no reason to heat the rod because it bends so easily in that bender.

[Eldon]

Great one set less!